On May 12-23 Exercise Black Arrow 2014, this year's largest tactical field training event of the Mechanised Infantry Brigade (MIB) Iron Wolf of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, will take place at the Gaižiūnų Training Range in Rukla (Jonavos distr.). It will train approximately 1500 troops of the MIB Iron Wolf and other units of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and a company of NATO ally the United States' 173rd Airborne Brigade of the U.S. Army in Europe (USAREUR) to carry out defensive operations.
"The certification tactical field exercise oriented towards completion and control of defensive tasks and interoperability between different units is the largest and one of the most important exercises in the combat training cycle of the MIB Iron Wolf this year. The readiness of the military to defend homeland and to operate side by side with NATO allies is our priority task," Commander MIB Iron Wolf Colonel Raimundas Vaikšnoras underlined the importance of the exercise.
The training audience of the exercise will perform procedures of mounting for a battle, tactical movement, positioning in a concentration area, and protection of territory and objects, drill operation in a CBR-contaminated area, prepare for defence and carry out tactical defensive actions at the Gaižiūnų Training Range and at the military grounds of the MIB Iron Wolf. Concurrently, the units will hone C2 procedures, coordination of actions, ensuring functioning of command posts, carry out operational planning, tactical decision-making, and perform other tasks.
The exercise will take place in phases
Tactical field Exercise Black Arrow 2014 will be conducted in several phases. During the first phase on May 12-16 the Duke Vaidotas Mechanised Infantry Battalion and units assigned to it will be trained to complete different defensive tasks and certified. The following phase will focus on integration of two units aimed at synchronisation of their joint action. The third portion will be the active phase where tactical tasks and combat control oriented towards defensive actions will be executed on a nonstop basis on May 18-22 according to a scenario generated by the Directing Staff. At the conclusion of the exercise a hot wash up will follow and the units will deploy back to their permanent bases.
Participants of the exercise
The target training audience of the exercise is the staff of the Duke Vaidotas Mechanised Infantry Battalion with units of the MIB Iron Wolf and the Lithuanian Grand Duke Kęstutis Mechanised Infantry Battalion assigned to it, an infantry company from the Lithuanian Grand Duke Butigeidis Dragoon Battalion. The company of USAREUR's 173rd Airborne Brigade will also be integrated into the Lithuanian combat team's performance of tasks in the course of the exercise.
Staffs of Algirdas and Kęstutis mechanised infantry battalions and the General Romualdas Giedraitis Artillery Battalion will be training planning and control of defensive operations as the secondary training audience. The Brigade's Reconnaissance Company, Fire Battery of the General Romualdas Giedraitis Artillery Battalion, 2nd Territorial Unit, Darius and Girėnas Military District, National Defence Volunteer Force (NDVF), and units from the Juozas Vitkus Engineer Battalion, Military Medical Service and the Air Defence Battalion will also be performing tasks according to the exercise scenario.
A company-sized unit (approximately 150 members) of the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade was moved to Lithuania with own equipment and weaponry required for exercise purposes.
The U.S. troops are currently based at the Duke Vaidotas Mechanised Infantry Battalion of the Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf in Rukla.
The U.S. military have engaged in ground force combat training throughout Lithuania as of May.
U.S. troops will also take part in Exercise Black Arrow in May, U.S.-Baltic States Exercise Saber Strike, and other cooperative training events.
So far, U.S. military presence is planned to be maintained in Lithuania till the end of the running year. Lithuania will provide the U.S. military with all the elements of host nation support necessary, i.e. accommodation, meals, logistic provision, etc.
The United States has deployed land force troops as a NATO ally in response to the threats for the region posed by the Russian intervention in Ukraine. The United States is also deploying army companies to Poland, Latvia and Estonia.
Supporting units
The exercise directing staff will receive support from teams formed by the Juozas Lukša Training Centre of the Lithuanian Land Force, Lithuanian Air Force and National Defence Volunteer Forces. Soldiers of the Grand Duchess Birute Uhlan Battalion and the Brigade's reconnaissance personnel will play the role of hostile forces while actual provision for the exercise will be ensure by personnel of the Headquarters and Signal Companies of the MIB Iron Wolf.
The units will be evaluated and observed by a team including military personnel from across the Land Force under command of the head of field exercise section of the General Adolfas Ramanauskas Warfare Training Centre. The team will be responsible for the certification of the combat team led by the staff of the Vaidotas Battalion and will come up with official recommendations in that regard.
Tactical field exercise Black Arrow 2014 is organised in the framework of combat readiness plan of MIB Iron Wolf. It will conclude the combat training cycle oriented towards defensive tasks of the Duke Vaidotas Mechanised Infantry Battalion of the MIB Iron Wolf and units assigned to it. Earlier this year, in the beginning of March, certification battalion-level command post Exercise White Wolf II was held where the capacity of the staff of the Vaidotas Battalion to plan defensive operations was certified.
FOR THE MEDIA: May 12, 2.00 p.m., formal opening ceremony of Exercise Black Arrow will take place at the base of the MIB Iron Wolf (Karaliaus Mindaugo str. 11, Rukla, Jonavos distr.). Media representatives willing to attend and take interviews with leadership and participants should register by email ainaras.jonaitis@mil.lt or at 00370 614 35 693 before May 12, 10.00 a.m. Please arrive no later than 1.50 p.m (.Karaliaus Mindaugo str. 11, Rukla, Jonavos distr).
Additional information: a DV and Media Day of the exercise will take place on May 22 at the Gaižiūnų Training Range. More detail to be released later.
POC - Assistant to the Commander of the MIB Iron Wolf Captain Ainaras Jonaitis. Mobile phone no. 00370 614 35 693; email: ainaras.jonaitis@mil.lt
